Though they have become rather popular recently, AI agent infrastructure sometimes lacks the expected capacity. Aiming to rewrite that story is AI agent infrastructure startup Arcade. Originally founded by former Redis engineer Sam Partee and former Okta executive Alex Salazar, the company has effectively raised $12 million from Laude Ventures, a new investment fund started by Andy Konwinski, co-founder of Perplexity and Databricks.
The Concept Driving Arcade
Salazar and Partee started Arcade in February 2024, hoping to transform AI agent infrastructure performance. They first aimed to create a site reliability agent to compete with rivals such as DataDog. They soon discovered, though, a basic problem: most artificial intelligence agents found it difficult to complete even simple chores efficiently. Their main difficulty came from depending on big language models (LLMs) educated on public data without access to important private data. This restriction stopped agents from handling internal company operations or verifying order delivery, two sophisticated business tasks.
Understanding this disparity, the founders changed direction. Rather than concentrating on developing another artificial intelligence agent, they developed a tool-calling platform enabling AI agents to safely access the same apps and data as the staff or job roles they support. This change turned Arcade from simply another artificial intelligence agent company into a basic AI agent infrastructure provider.
Arcade Improves AI Agent Performance
By guaranteeing safe and quick access to business applications, Arcade’s infrastructure helps AI agents operate more successfully. By connecting with OAuth, the platform lets thousands of SaaS apps and websites easily authenticate. Moreover, Arcade acts as a middleman controlling safe token access to stop LLMs from misusing authentication credentials.
By enabling AI agents to operate with the same rights as human workers, this creative approach greatly enhances their capacity to interact with corporate-critical apps. With both subscription models and usage-based pricing, Arcade’s tool-calling platform is reachable to companies of all kinds.
Investor Hope in Arcade’s Prospect
The investment made by Laude Ventures in Arcade marks their first publicly declared one. General partner and co-founder of Laude, Pete Sonsini, was instrumental in securing the money. Experienced investor Sonsini saw Arcade’s potential in creating basic AI agent infrastructure, having supported startups like Databricks and Perplexity.
While many artificial intelligence companies follow the newest trends around LLMs, Sonsini stressed that strong infrastructure is actually more important. “We focus on highly technical founders who understand the deeper levels of artificial intelligence infrastructure where billion-dollar businesses can develop,” he said.
Given Salazar’s history—having earlier developed and sold authentication API startup Stormpath to Okta—investors are sure Arcade can upset the AI agent market.
AI Agent Infrastructure: Future Directions
Although artificial intelligence agents have great potential, restrictions on access to and management of private data have so hampered their actual usefulness. By providing a scalable and safe solution that enables AI agents to efficiently complete challenging tasks, Arcade seeks to close this divide.
Arcade is positioned to redefine the AI agent scene with a $12 million infusion from Laude Ventures and a leadership team seasoned in artificial intelligence infrastructure. Arcade’s tool-calling system could become essential in enabling AI agents to be more dependable, safe, and efficient as companies embrace AI-driven automation.
Arcade is building the foundation for the next generation of business AI solutions by turning attention from the “shiny object” of AI agents to the underlying infrastructure. The path ahead seems bright, and the sector will be closely observing to see how Arcade transforms AI agent capabilities.
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